Category: Reviews

11/18/16

Car Wars – A Trip Down The Memory Fast Lane, Part 6

The long and winding retrospective on Car Wars continues ~

Michael Eckenfels, 18 November 2016

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THE BEST OF AUTODUEL QUARTERLY, VOLUME 1

 

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Released in 1986, and packed with 48 pages of goodness, this little book republished the best articles as per the demands of Car Wars fans everywhere. The hard part, the editors state on the inside cover, is how to pare down the list and include the actual best stuff. So, they decided to not republish stuff that had already been released on its own, like Uncle Albert and the Convoy module. Instead, you have a book that is loaded with some good stuff that’s not easily found elsewhere, all in one place.

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11/4/16

Car Wars – A Trip Down The Memory Fast Lane, Part 5

Rolling through our Car Wars retrospective ~

Michael Eckenfels, 4 November 2016

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CONVOY: A PROGRAMMED CAR WARS ADVENTURE FOR 1-6 PLAYERS

 

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Now we come across one of my favorites. This little gem is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure for the Car Wars universe, and I played the holy heck out of it. Released in 1984 in the first issue of Autoduel Quarterly and then later re-published here as a stand-alone book, this game sets you up in an adventure where you could indeed play it solo (albeit playing six characters), or up to six players. As long as six players were in the game, you could play it. It could even be played tournament style, with a referee guiding the players and rolling for the bad guys.

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10/31/16

GrogHeads Reviews Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition

For all your Halloween madness ~

Avery Abernethy, 31 October 2016

Call of Cthulhu (CoC) role playing game was first published in 1981 by Sandy Peterson.   CoC was derived from the Cthulhu horror writings of H.P. Lovecraft and his successors. Lovecraft’s work was published in pulp magazines through the 1930s. Horrible alien gods are dead or sleeping but can become alive again when the stars are right. These gods would destroy all of humanity either without noticing or without caring. There are isolated cults of insane believers who try to awaken these malevolent forces. These horrific gods have spawn, alien races and other associated evils. The gods cannot be killed and their followers are often difficult to impossible to destroy. Mythos knowledge causes insanity.

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10/28/16

GrogHeads Reviews 1775: Rebellion, Digital Version

Ardwulf makes a guest appearance with his review of HexWar’s new adaptation of Academy Games’ 1775: Rebellion.  How does the boardgame translate to the computer? ~

Gary Mengle, 28 October 2016

1775: Rebellion, from boardgame publisher Academy Games and PC developer HexWar and now available through Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux, sits uncomfortably between the kindred worlds of board and PC strategy gaming. An adaptation of Academy’s well-regarded Euro-style board game on the American Revolution, it translates the source material very faithfully but will leave PC-focused strategy gamers unsatisfied.

1775 tells the story of America’s revolution against the British Empire. There are seats for two teams of four players each, but the game can just as easily accommodate two players taking both sides of their team. French and Hessian units can enter play on the sides of the Americans and British, respectively, while Native American units can enter play or become controlled by one or both sides.

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10/21/16

Car Wars – A Trip Down The Memory Fast Lane, Part 4

Car Wars in the rear view mirror, again ~

Michael Eckenfels, 21 October 2016

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CAR WARS EXPANSION SET #3: EAST MIDVILLE

Yes, it’s marked #3. Expansion #1 (uniquely and cleverly named “Expansion Set #1) had a ton of road sections and extra counters, along with suggested track and arena layouts. Expansion #2 (named…yes, you guessed it!) had more of the same…more counters in the form of duplicate counter sheets from the original game, as well as from both Sunday Drivers (err, Crash City) and Truck Stop, and even a ‘Turning Key’ that was apparently a maneuver template of some kind to move your cars around more easily.

 

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